Most conventional communications networks today, particularly existing telephone networks, provide a calling party with an audible ringback signal when an intended called network address or station line is idle and a busy signal when the intended called network address or station line is already in use (i.e., the telephone or other device at the called network address is being used). Conventional networks also provide a calling party with an audible dial tone signal when the telephone or other device at the calling station signals the network that they wish to initiate a call or network communication and a line is available. Most conventional communications networks today, particularly existing telephone networks, also provide advanced features, such as call waiting. The call waiting feature allows a station or device already connected to another station or device to temporarily disconnect from a first call and receive a second incoming call, and then switch between the calling parties.
For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,557,658, 5,428,670, and 5,321,740 to Gregorek et al., incorporated herein by reference, disclose the selective modification or replacement of at least a portion of a call progress signal, including the conventional aforementioned ringback signal, dial tone, busy signal, call waiting signal, and call waiting idle time, with prerecorded announcements and/or audio/video programming. These announcements and/or programming provide more information to a calling party. The replacement announcements and tones can be tailored to a specific calling party and can be associated with a calling party's unique network address or telephone number.
Custom ringback announcements allow for an additional level of flexibility and personalization of a user's communications network service. To customize the system, a user of a replacement ringback system, the network provider, or a third party might wish to deliver, for example, audio/video programming, music, interactive games, jokes, personalized messages, or informational messages to a calling party to supplement and/or replace the conventional ringback tones played to the calling party. Furthermore, replacement content can be customized for a specific calling party or group of calling parties. The replacement ringback system offers a convenient and simple way to extend a caller's communication experience and takes advantage of a previously unutilized call transmission period.
In addition, replacement ringback tones and announcements offer almost limitless applications in the marketing industry. Typically, a caller experiences a rather large amount of unused idle time when waiting for a called party to answer his or her telephone. A caller may also be put on hold for several minutes while the called party answers another inbound call (e.g., a called party may place an initial caller on call-waiting or hold to answer a second inbound call). Since ringback tones can be played to all parties, regardless of the called party's or calling party's own carrier or calling transmission means (i.e., whether the caller is calling from a wireless link or land line, etc.), replacement ringback tones are an ideal medium for advertising. Substantial revenue can be gained by taking advantage of this idle time to deliver advertisements pertaining to consumer goods, products, services, etc. provided by a particular corporation or individual. Further, since communication devices are virtually ubiquitous and universally used, ringback tones have the potential to reach a large, targeted audience very quickly and efficiently. For example, businesses may use replacement ringback tones to deliver company slogans, jingles, and promotions to increase exposure and publicity.
As the adoption of the technology identified in the above-referenced application is emerging, certain drawbacks in the user interface for enabling the functionality of the application are arising. For example, a subscriber is usually required to notify the network provider in advance if the subscriber desires a new ringback replacement association via a Short Message Service (SMS) message, email, or telephone call to the communications network's voice response system or call center. This advance notification, for example, usually contains at least the network address or addresses to be associated with the new ringback content and an identification of the desired replacement ringback content. Alternatively, a communications network may utilize a website designed to facilitate interaction with the network's ringback replacement system. After an authentication and identification process, a user of a replacement ringback website may specify new ringback content to be added to the user's ringback service via a user-friendly web interface and a series of graphical prompts and menus. The desired ringback content may be already stored on the communications network (or a third party location) or the user may select local content to be transferred to a storage location accessible by the communications network. The website may utilize standard HTTP upload functionality, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or any other data transfer or upload mechanism to initiate the transfer of the replacement ringback content to the communications network. The network provider then makes the necessary changes to the subscriber's service to associate the appropriate network address or addresses with the desired ringback content.
Also, notification and confirmation by external means are often required to update or change the ringback content for an already-existing ringback association. For example, an exchange of emails may be required to effect the change in service, or a visit to a website may be necessary to modify replacement ringback functionality. This often inconvenient and time-consuming method of updating or adding new ringback content to a user's service discourages subscribers of a ringback replacement service from frequently modifying or adding new ringback replacement associations, thus reducing potential revenue by deterring regular and repeated ringback content purchasing and utilization.
In addition, call transfer is one of the most commonly used services in modern communications networks. When a call is transferred, handed off, or forwarded to another network service provider, replacement ringback content is usually overridden by the ringback signals of the terminating network service provider. For example, a subscriber in a mobility environment can specify calls to be forwarded in various situations. When the CFU (Call Forwarding Unconditional) service is activated, for example, all calls destined to the subscriber are forwarded to a given number, which may be inside or outside the current service provider's coverage area. In the CFB (Call Forwarding on Busy) service, calls are forwarded if the called subscriber is busy. By activating the CFNRy (Call Forwarding on No Reply) service, the subscriber can instruct calls to be forwarded after a predetermined series of unanswered ringback tones. Call forwarding for mobile/roaming subscribers may take the form of the CFNRc (Call Forwarding on Not Reachable) service. Using the CFNRc service, calls are forwarded if the subscriber is not in the coverage area of the communications network, or if the subscriber has turned his or her mobile station off. Typically, in these call forwarding situations, custom replacement ringback content is lost.
Further, as is common in the art, many communications networks contain servers which contain multi-location identification information for subscribers of the communications network. A user participating in this multi-location feature provides potential callers with a single network address that the callers may use to reach the subscriber. The communications network server containing the multi-location identification information responds to incoming calls on the multi-location number by initiating to what is known to those skilled in the art as a forked-call. A forked-call is actually several simultaneous calls initiated by the communications network server to a predetermined number of network addresses in hope of locating the desired subscriber. For example, a forked-call may try to locate the subscriber at the subscriber's home telephone number, wireless telephone number, vacation house telephone number, and PDA network address simultaneously. The incoming caller is usually connected to the first simultaneous call that is answered, at which time all other outbound calls are typically terminated.
During a forked-call or forwarded call, each end-point is likely responding with its own ringback signaling. The communications network server initiating the forked or forwarded-call usually disregards these ringback announcements and provides its own announcement indicating that the system is attempting to locate the called subscriber. Alternatively, the communications network server may simply provide conventional ringback announcements to the calling party.
It would be advantageous if the subscribers of a ringback replacement service could choose certain custom replacement ringback announcements to be delivered to incoming callers calling on a multi-location network address regardless of which location (i.e. network service provider or device) terminates or answers the call. It would also be advantageous if the same subscribers could utilize a simple system for modifying or adding replacement ringback content to the subscriber's network service. Thus a seamless service is needed for delivering uniform custom replacement ringback content on behalf of a subscriber across various network communication services. A system is further needed for easily customizing this service using a familiar means, such as the menu or prompt systems already integrated with a handset or station or a user-friendly web-interface.